Every year, there is always a steady stream of “Best of” lists for smartphones. Here at Notebookcheck, we even have our own Top 10 lists for a fewdifferentsmartphonecategories. These lists often come from experts and tech reviewers, but what about the opinions of average consumers? That’s where the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) steps in. The poll takes the opinions of hundreds or thousands of consumers and compiles the data into lists and rankings of various product categories. The top of this year’s smartphone list is almost completely filled with two names: Apple and Samsung.

Overall satisfaction with smartphones hasn’t changed at all from last year. However, one thing that has changed is Nokia, which once belonged to Microsoft, gaining favor with consumers with an increase of 8% year-over-year. Other phone companies remained relatively unchanged. What’s more interesting are the individual phones that topped the list. The iPhone SE took the top spot with the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and the iPhone 7 Plus hot on its heels. (It should be noted that the ACSI omitted the Galaxy Note 7 due to its recall and the Galaxy S8line as it was released after the survey was conducted.) The rest of the list is almost entirely comprised of iPhone and Galaxy models; out of the top 23 devices, 21 are either Samsung or Apple phones. Apple took 40% of the top 20, while Samsung took the other 60%, although this may be due to the sheer volume of Galaxy models Samsung has produced over the years.

This list may also be predominated by the two tech juggernauts because of the proliferation of iPhones and Galaxy phones over the past few years. Both Samsung and Apple aggressively market their phones, and both companies routinely post massive sales numbers year after year. It may be that the companies’ devices ranked so high due to the fact that smartphone users are statistically likely to have either a Samsung or Apple phone in their pocket.

There are a few other smartphone metrics included in the report. Overall, consumers are largely satisfied with the current state of the industry but have increasingly enjoyed smartphone operation and battery life. Full details of the report can be found at the ASCI website here.

I've been a "tech-head" my entire life. After graduating college with a degree in Mathematics, I worked in finance and banking a few years before taking a job as a Systems Analyst for my local school district. I started working with Notebookcheck in October of 2016 and have enjoyed writing news articles and notebook reviews. My areas of interest include the business side of technology, retro gaming, Linux, and innovative gadgets. When I'm not hunched over an electronic device or writing code for a new database, I'm either outside with my family, playing a decade-old video game, or sitting behind a drum set.